Burberry Prorsum

Accolades go to Christopher Bailey for being one of those rare young designers who can orchestrate the components of a collectionclothes, accessories, brand identityand infuse it all with a sense of lightness, as well as originality. At Burberry, he said, "the whole thing is to look as if you've just thrown it on"in other words, like Karen Elson as she breezed out with an airy pale-blue raincoat over a flowered dress: nonchalant, pretty, and very English in the bargain.

Those qualities played throughout the showin the face-powder-pink leather trench, blue-and-white patchwork quilted linen skirts, fine-striped yellow-and-white knits, and even in the experimental volume of looped-up dresses. Behind all that seemingly casual ease, though, is an impressively thought-out sense of continuity.

Take Bailey's constant reinvention of the iconic trench: Now, it's a puff-sleeved smock. Or the way he always works in scarveshere, as feminine, wispy trails sometimes edged with pearls or a frill. Bailey makes sure to add in some Britishness; this season, with Wedgwood blue-and-white and Clarice Cliff Deco ceramics for print inspiration, and "English spider" brooches. To keep it from cloying, he tossed in some shiny techno fabric or a nutty pair of sixties sunglasses for fun.

Burberry's bags looked pretty fantastic, too, like the chunky brown leather picnic bag, or a great new shoulder bag Bailey calls a "sack," that ties in a bow at the shoulder. He's even reclaimed the famous beige-black-red check, in little leather-trimmed purses and totes.